F-Zero X is the third (Second in North America) in the F-Zero series of racing games made by Nintendo. It was released for Nintendo 64 and ran at 60 frames per second (made possible through the disabling of the normal Z-buffering and the inclusion of an alternative drawing scheme that resulted in the occasional visual glitch or car seen through a track). The F-Zero series was notable for a rock / electronic soundtrack, and to carry on this idea on the N64 the normal sound processor was bypassed: around 10% of the processor was allocated just to background music.

An eXpansion kit was available for the 64DD, a removable hard drive add-on that plugged into the bottom of the N64. This disk included new cups, a couple new cars, a track editor, and a car editor. The new cars could be applied to any of the existing 30 racers, and the racers would then race with the custom cars. New music was also included.

Cups and vehicles

It featured 30 vehicles, including the four from the original. Six are avalible from the start and more can be unlocked as the player completes the cups. It has five cups, with the names based on card games: the Jack, Queen, King, Joker and X Cups. X cup could only be avalible once the player has beaten all the other cups in expert mode (or if appropriate cheat codes were entered). The X Cup is unique in that all of its courses are randomly generated. While this added infinite variety to the game, it was hampered by the program's somewhat limited definition of "random": some of its tracks were quite literally plain ovals, requiring little-to-no skill to win, while others offered such convoluted hairpin turns that the unwary player (and CPU competitors) could find themselves "retiring" into the atmosphere on a frequent basis.

Modes

The game included several modes, including:

• GP race
• Death race
• Time Trial
• Practice
• Multiplayer.

Full records of time trial and death race times were stored on the game cartridge.